Gas stations and credit card holds

I stopped at a Chevron I never used before. I used my credit card and the amount came to $33.86. When I got home and checked my account. It showed a $126.00 hold for that transaction. I hate when gas stations do this. I know the Shell and 76 stations I use always just have a $1.00 hold until the transaction clears.

One Chevron station really pissed me off last year. It was the day before payday. I had around $50.00 in my checking account. I stopped to fill up my car. It usually comes out to about $40.00 bucks. Well my debit card was declined. The guy said sorry, you need at least $90.00 in your account. I felt so little. I now only use credit cards at gas stations.

Pretty standard, they don't know how much you are going to fill, so they pre-authorize $100 or something and then charge whatever you actually pump when you are done. Blame your bank for holding the pre-auth past the charge for way too long.

Teefy Buna

Originally Posted by Sump

I'm sure a lot of these guys went home after the carwash and played a little hans solo.

Who cares? My limit is somewhere near $4600 and I never even get close.

Originally Posted by feliks

I do not want to think what would have happened, if as a result of the vibrations, the resulting leaks in the fuel pool and the water came out of it ... Almost as a result of radiation inside the building and its three filling remains, you can not to re-seal it. ..

Therefore, even mild disturbances such methods may be used: diamond cut rope ..

I only use a credit card when traveling for piece of mind and chargeback protection. It's also nice that it's not linked to your checking account if it gets hacked/compromised.

This is one of many reasons I tend to use a credit card for any and all purchases, the OP's is another reason. I'd rather have someone elses money on the hook instead of mine (whereby I pay the "debt" I owe at the end of the term), especially for silly transactions like that where there's severely overcharged charges held but then the difference gets refunded when it clears.

Originally Posted by Lwize

What, none of you watch reruns on TV?

Originally Posted by NPH

I don't know about you but, I get angry and shout "IB4TL" when one comes on.

This is one of the reasons I pay inside. That, and the machines on the pump are so &$^#ing slow, and ask you so many damned questions, it's actually faster to walk inside, tell the dude "pump 3, just the gas, no points card," pay, and leave.

I stopped at a Chevron I never used before. I used my credit card and the amount came to $33.86. When I got home and checked my account. It showed a $126.00 hold for that transaction. I hate when gas stations do this. I know the Shell and 76 stations I use always just have a $1.00 hold until the transaction clears.

One Chevron station really pissed me off last year. It was the day before payday. I had around $50.00 in my checking account. I stopped to fill up my car. It usually comes out to about $40.00 bucks. Well my debit card was declined. The guy said sorry, you need at least $90.00 in your account. I felt so little. I now only use credit cards at gas stations.

Pretty standard practice. If you got the cash, just use cash and pay your $40

As adrew said, pretty standard for hotels too. I've had to prepay well over a grand before at places that preauthorize the entire stay + potential incidentals. You learn to use a credit card quickly when you find out it can take days to return it to your debit card, but the credit card clears off right after getting authorized

My local station does not do a hold. In fact, there is almost a full day lag between the time I swipe at the pump and when it comes out of my checking account. Not always. Sometimes a $1 hold and then the full charge the next day, sometimes nothing until the next day, sometimes it all comes out at once. I've rolled the bones a few times at the pump. Normally I pay inside as I'm never filling it up and I need to grab a pop, donut and chat with the local cast of characters inside the station.

As far as credit card hold.... I've never really run into any issues at gas stations or hotels. Granted I don't travel much, but I'd say I stay in a hotel at least a couple of time a year. I've never had a hold. Never. I don't ( and never have) had a credit card, so I keep close track of things like that.

That's not the bank's fault. The gas station is the one holding the pre-auth.

Actually depending on the area it may differ. Here in FL, my local credit union sent out a letter a few
months back saying that "pre auth debit transactions" at gas stations were going to have a auto hold of $75 instead of the previous $50.

The credit union here is the one holding the pre-auth.

To the OP - Next time just pay inside, whether you are using debit/credit, they will deduct the exact amt you tell them

As far as credit card hold.... I've never really run into any issues at gas stations or hotels. Granted I don't travel much, but I'd say I stay in a hotel at least a couple of time a year. I've never had a hold. Never. I don't ( and never have) had a credit card, so I keep close track of things like that.

In my experience, places like America's Best Value Inn or Days Inn (where I usually stay when paying myself, like on a road trip) don't do exorbitant holds, if any.

But I travel once or twice a year for work conferences and those are always somewhere like a Hyatt or a Hilton -- and those places want to be sure they have enough locked down to cover your whole stay, plus some extra if you go crazy with the minibar or order a bunch of Spanktravision.

You'd be surprised at how many and how much money transactions float through the air in the evenings. these gas stations and any other store that uses a credit card service for all of their transactions get processed at around the same time late in the evening. The hold is sort of a transaction place card so the actual transaction to the credit processing company can be made later in the day usually after business hours along with every other transaction that day all at once. it costs the business money to use this credit card service per transaction which is why sometimes you might see a minimum purchase necessary at gas stations like 4 or 5 dollars.

the holds for 50, 75, 100 dollars is to make sure people don't run out of their money in the day before the transactions take place thus putting somebody in the red in their bank account in the morning. Its only a line that had to be drawn somewhere, you can still empty your account easily with 100 in there but drawing the line at such a high dollar amount actually increases the chances that it wont happen. Also they try to claim that it is a precaution that incase your card gets stolen people do not run it dry. Usually the first stop is a gas station with a stolen card.

some banks which i think should be very illegal and is highly immoral practices will actually take all of your transactions over a weekend or even an evening after business hours and process the biggest ones first. this has gotten me in the past and pissed off lots of people because processing the biggest transactions first will put you in the red faster. so banks that charge you an overdraft fee for every transaction in the red was making lots of money over drafting people as fast as possible then putting the rest of the transactions through.

In my experience, places like America's Best Value Inn or Days Inn (where I usually stay when paying myself, like on a road trip) don't do exorbitant holds, if any.

But I travel once or twice a year for work conferences and those are always somewhere like a Hyatt or a Hilton -- and those places want to be sure they have enough locked down to cover your whole stay, plus some extra if you go crazy with the minibar or order a bunch of Spanktravision.

Oddly enough, I usually stay at a Hyatt or Marriott and have never had a hold. I'm wondering if this is a difference between debit/credit and Visa & Mastercard servicing? Perhaps a hold is being placed but I never see it. Could be my bank as well I suppose. I'm just never seeing it.

That's not the bank's fault. The gas station is the one holding the pre-auth.

Could be different up here, which I never thought of before.

It is law here to pre-pay for fuel purchases. So, we have to swipe, get authorized (you can choose "fill up" which is about $150, or you can enter a dollar amount), and then pump away. If you choose "fill up" and only put in $60, youll get that $90 back available on your credit limit after another couple days. If your month rolls over say the next day, you are only charged the $60, not the $150. The gas stattion receives the $60 and never sees any of the $150.

Last edited by ThreadBomber; 12-13-2011 at 12:45 PM.

Teefy Buna

Originally Posted by Sump

I'm sure a lot of these guys went home after the carwash and played a little hans solo.

That's not the bank's fault. The gas station is the one holding the pre-auth.

not true. your bank is the one not refunding your money fast enough. When you get a refund anywhere, be it wal-mart or the gas station, it depends on your bank on how fast you get that money back. The refund is instant from the store.. The pre-auth is a charge then refund then recharge for the correct price.

it costs the business money to use this credit card service per transaction which is why sometimes you might see a minimum purchase necessary at gas stations like 4 or 5 dollars.

IIRC, this is against merchant and creditor contract and is grounds for terminating the contract between the credit companies and the merchants. Only reason we don't hear about Visa/Mastercard canceling contracts is most people either don't know about this or don't care to report it to the card companies since it's such a meager amount of money.

Originally Posted by Lwize

What, none of you watch reruns on TV?

Originally Posted by NPH

I don't know about you but, I get angry and shout "IB4TL" when one comes on.

IIRC, this is against merchant and creditor contract and is grounds for terminating the contract between the credit companies and the merchants. Only reason we don't hear about Visa/Mastercard canceling contracts is most people either don't know about this or don't care to report it to the card companies since it's such a meager amount of money.

My current terminal has a $1.00 minimum. I have no control over it, which sucks because I have an astounding amount of people wanting to charge $.78.